Yo-ho-ho

Jung Pirates

I finally got hold of the Jung Pirates cards, and I really like them.  So much so that I'm prepared to throw the Tengu Decension under the bus and pick up the Jung Pirates instead when the time comes. Right now, there's only 4 profiles, but just looking at them and I can see the possible interactions already.  I really wish I'd ordered a full complement of metal pirates now (sadface), but like everyone else I'll have to wait for the faction general release.  I'll stick with the Tengu Decension for now (and probably use them at the next UK Games Expo) but it's the pirates I'm really after.

We've been playing a lot of Rise of the Kage at the moment, and I'm enjoying it quite a lot - quite possibly because I'm a bit of a sadist and I like being the guard player.  Unfortunately there's a fair bit of tweaking that needs to be done in order to balance the game out, we think we've hit roughly the right spot with the following modifications to the game:

The Guard player has to pay an Allocation token to play a card.  They can keep any tokens they don't spend at the end of the turn so use cards in the following Ninja Turn, but those will be reset as normal once it's the Guard Turn again.  (apparently I should not draw arrows using text, it makes the blogging software go crazy)

Guards can only be allocated a maximum of 1 noise token.  Avoids the Chuck Norris guard of death.

Guard bosses can be allocated a maximum of 2 noise tokens.  Just because the Guard Boss is the Chuck Norris of the mission, but too much Chuck Norris is a bad thing (to some people).

Wounds incur a -1 penalty per wound to the ninja's dice rolls instead of removing a dice.  This means a wounded ninja isn't completely useless as they no longer have any dice of the appropriate type, but a heavily wounded ninja is still pretty awful.

Ninjas place equipment and bonus cards face down on the ninja profiles until they are used.  This adds a lot of mystery for the Guard player, you never quite know if it's worth saving the Broken card or not.

Sabotage may be played to nullify any guard card.  This lets the ninjas actually do something about a guard card that's particularly nasty.

Remove the following cards from the Ninja Deck:
Intuition
Insight
Disturbed Again
Disturbed!!

Remove the following cards from the Guard Deck:
Surprise (2 amber alert guards)
Surprise (1 red alert guard)
There They Are! (3 guards)
Noise noise noise
Loyalty (Docks of Ryu expansion)
Hinderance (Docks of Ryu expansion) (any ninja dice)
Send For Help (Docks of Ryu expansion) (the -1x(guard) +2x(noise) one)

Certain Guard Boss specific cards may need to be vetted, but we haven't played enough with this iteration to know which ones - I think Oka will probably the most victimised for this.

Otherwise, play the game as normal.

Kage... Possibly Rising...

I've now tried out the Tengu Decension against a few more factions and players and it's becoming a lot clearer what they're good at and what they're not with the currently available profiles.  There's definitely a few holes in the faction: some bodyguard Tribesmen for the support tengu, and something to help deal with fear are the top of my list.  Right now they do suffer quite badly when out-activated since their ability to remove enemy models is weak.  I think I'm going to aim for sheer model count (like James Hasker has done) in the next couple of games.

In more important news: MY COPY OF RISE OF THE KAGE (with expansion) HAS ARRIVED!
Wooooooooooooooo.  It's all unpackaged and ready to be played on Sunday.

I do wish I'd ordered the Bushido cards for everything though, but I'm happy enough to be surprised when things actually come out.  It's a pretty big set of releases for Prefecture, and the introduction of the Shadow Wind Clan will certainly shift a few things in Bushido.  I didn't know the Jung Pirates would get some of their profiles revealed though, that really interests me - what's the faction schtick?

More terrain is available from Master Crafted Miniatures (who funnily enough did all the digital sculpts of the Tengu Decension from what I understand).  Lots of lanterns abound.